HD DVD History, Chrome Ad Blocking, Embedded Tweets, and the Shift Away from Physical Media

Hello, and you're listening to the Internet Pathfinder.

I'm your host, Steve Phillips. In this podcast,

the goal is to inform, educate, and reminisce

as we find a path through the world of technology,

internet, and podcasting. In this debut podcast,

I'm hoping to receive feedback and thoughts as

I fine -tune this experiment into the unknown.

This is my first endeavor into creating a podcast

in the past four or five years. And in doing

so, I'm hoping to kind of hit a different level.

So I hope you'll bear with me as I progress through

these episodes and creatively flex that muscle

that I've been wanting to help others navigate

technology and whatnot. as well so i've had the

privilege of learning about technology over the

past 25 years between my roots at five years

old getting my first 486 dx for 100 uh pre -penium

and uh all the way until now where i've i've

done tech support i've done uh about 11 years

of podcasting through various websites uh and

actually work in the podcasting field so i feel

like i have Quite a bit of variety of tech experience

to teach about and to explain. So what I'm hoping

to do in the next few episodes, and in this one

as well, is inform on a variety of segments that

are kind of related and not really all that much

out of it in kind of short. So I'll be doing

basically a This Week in History lesson. Kind

of taking some things that happened that particular

week in history of the recording of the podcast

however many years ago. Some what you need to

know in tech news. The podcast highlighted the

week where I would like to be able to play a

podcast ad for someone else's show more or less

to pass it forward and to... Just to kind of

help spread the word of other people's podcast

in my podcast. I've done some of the podcast

ads before with other podcasts on my network.

And so I kind of want to do that because I'm

in this 28 Day Challenge podcast movement challenge

for the... month of February. And there's a lot

of talented people in here. There's a lot of

awesome podcasts that I'm looking forward to

checking out just as soon as everybody gets launched

and I get this thing a little bit fine -tuned.

So I'm definitely hoping I'm doing that. Plus,

I'm hoping to talk about kids and technology

because I have, since the launch of my podcast

network, had to experience how to raise little

ones on technology, and what I don't want to

raise them on compared to what I was raised on.

What I kind of see going wrong with modern society,

with technology and media. So it's kind of a

little bit of everything. I may not talk about

all these things in every episode, but again,

that's kind of the premise of what I'm hoping

to do here. If you'd like to interact with the

show, there's multiple ways of doing so. I have

registered InternetPathfinder .com, which at

the moment links to the Facebook page for the

podcast. I do plan to add this as a sub -podcast

on my Altered Geek website and Geekcast Radio

Network. It will also be featured on Google Play,

iTunes, Stitcher, and more as the weeks go on.

So you can also find it on Twitter at InterPathfinder.

And myself on there as well at SCP -21. I will

not repeat that consistently every episode, so

don't worry about that. So without further ado,

I'm going to jump into the tech history lesson

here. And like I said here, I'm hoping to inform

with just some kind of interesting tech things

that have come over the past few decades anyway.

So in February of 2008... The war over the high

-definition successor to the DVD ends when the

supporters of the HD DVD format discontinue it,

and the Sony -backed Blu -ray format garnered

the support of many players in the industry.

So that would be the demise of HD DVD. Also,

the same day in history, which is February 19th,

of 1987, the beginning of Apple .com was created.

That's right, the internet domain Apple .com.

was started. And this was a full four years before

the World Wide Web was launched or Microsoft

.com was registered. But still, it's still something

to keep track of. I had no idea when I was kind

of looking for this information that Apple had

one of the first domains of any of these tech

giants to be out there. Because my introduction

to technology and... the internet as a whole

were in the 90s, the kind of mid 90s. So I really

wasn't aware of a lot of it until I went to college

to discover that, you know, the internet was

formed basically in the 60s with the ARPANET.

And my introduction as a child to the internet

or preteen or whatever was around 96 where I

had dial up and it was the 28k modem it was it

was insanely slow by today's standards when you

have things that go anywhere from 100 megabit

per second to two terabyte two gigabyte per second

downloads if you've got something like google

or a specific comcast plan so it's it's kind

of interesting to go back in time and kind of

see some of the things that have happened over

the over the past few decades and We also, in

the 70s, had the first warrant to issue a search

of computer storage, which would lead to the

more sophisticated methods of encryption to hide

computer files from law enforcement agents, which

is just crazy in itself. So this is just something

that kind of is mind -boggling to me of all the

historical things that you just kind of forget

about over the years. comes back and you're like,

wow, that's something I either A, didn't know

or don't remember because it didn't leave that

big of an impact or you just weren't aware of.

It's time for what you need to know in tech news.

Are you tired of those annoying pop -up ads online?

Well, they may be coming to an end because Google

has begun to block those intrusive ads. By default

in its Chrome browser. So the tech giant has

finally made it something that will be a default

ad blocker in Chrome, aimed at stopping adverts

and pop -ups, which make the user experience

slower. So flashing animated banner ads, auto

-playing video advertisements with sound that

are to be targeted, while Google will contact

websites that breach the advertising guidelines.

ultimately block their advertising if they fail

to make changes after 30 days uh they are looking

for a coalition of better ads so it's basically

the members of that will include major advertising

places like unilever google facebook major news

publishers such as News Corp, which was kind

of all suggested last year, but Google has now

moved to implement its ad blocking technology.

So this is kind of good for those that are sick

of all that stuff kind of playing in the background

or sneaking up on them while they're trying to

actually read an article. I myself, I have multiple

ad blockers installed on my browser, one of which

is... The Disable HTML5 Autoplay, which stops

all video and players from playing by default.

I can toggle it on by website. I have AdGuard

AdBlocker. And I also have the AdBlock Plus because

I just don't want the ads. And I find them very

intrusive. It's not like it's just, you know,

a one or two ads. No, it's the videos that play

that slow things down. It's the Flash player.

It's all the... all of that kind of stuff. So

I'm definitely behind what Google's initiative

is here to have their own ad blocker that, no,

it won't be a blanket advertising stopper for

a lot of ads, but it will stop a lot of the third

-party ad material, as it were. So that's very

good news that the intrusive ads will be blocked,

the autoplay advertisements and the advertisements

with screen blockage and the ability to allow

ads to pop up or to toggle them off. I am definitely...

Definitely behind this. I'm not a fan of all

the ads just jumping all over my face. That's

one of the biggest turn -offs to a website to

me. If I have a ton of ads in the articles or

if I have a ton of ads that are just vying for

my attention instead of letting me go for what

I read, I'm going there to read or to watch,

I will instantly click off of the website. I

will find an alternative by Googling or using

Bing and moving on. I do not. subscribe to that

so that's that's to me something that's long

overdue another interesting thing that kind of

popped up over the past week was a federal judge

ruled that embedded tweets can represent copyright

infringement which i found to be a little bit

interesting because a lot of news resources and

a lot of websites actually use these embedded

tweets on articles to kind of quote verbatim

what's going on and what's being said on Twitter.

So apparently a New York federal judge decided

that significant implications for how copyright

laws are enforced. It was in a case where Justin

Goldman, accused of publications, including Breitbart,

Time, Yahoo, etc., had posted a photo to Snapchat,

apparently. And it went viral and other users

subsequently uploaded it to Twitter. So according

to the Hollywood Reporter and things like that,

the photo in question was a picture of Tom Brady,

which it has to do with football. I'm not a follower

of that, but the fact of the matter is that this

was a... possible liability for copyright infringement

determined by whether an image is hosted on the

publisher's server or the publisher just embedded

or linked to an image that's hosted elsewhere.

Now, the ruling doesn't mean that the publishers

have lost the suit. It just simply rejects their

motion for summary judgment. But it could mean

big ramifications, though, if this keeps kind

of spiraling. out for those that use tweets and

mention them or post them on their website and

embed them and whatnot. So this could have bigger

ramifications depending on how this gets ruled

in the future or handled in the future. Another

thing that I found kind of interesting is that

Best Buy is going to be pulling CDs from its

stores. And this article is a couple weeks old,

but... I still find this very interesting that

Best Buy is kind of leaving the old physical

media out of its stores now. And some people

are kind of losing it, some people not. I am

one of the big proponents of utilizing digital

space over physical space. I used to have 1 ,300

movies, which I know it's not CDs, storage of

this media technology. And I think that when

you're moving as fast as we are from the traditional

to this digital age, it's about time that we

kind of move it away from that. I mean, I know

that there's some recurrences of vinyl and things

like that, but with all the streaming services

and all the options for getting your... digital

media having the physical media doesn't really

mean much anymore uh especially when uh back

in 2001 they had 800 million cds sold in the

u .s and that number fell to 89 million by 2017

which is a huge drop uh which really isn't a

surprise when you have places like apple music

spotify pandora just Amazon Music, things like

that that have their own services to either buy

or stream the music. I mean, there's more streaming

services popping up all the time. It just makes

sense that it would slow down. I'm surprised,

honestly, that DVDs and Blu -rays haven't dropped

off either, especially DVDs because it's a little

bit older of a format. Whereas Blu -rays are

a little, I mean, you get more crisp and HD quality

than you would in some instances on streaming

just based on your internet connection. But I

think that we're going to be coming to the day

where DVDs and Blu -rays will start going away

as well. And it will come to the point where

you won't really own your media. It will be just

kind of a streaming service that you get to add

to a queue. Unless it's something like Apple

where you get to download, you buy the movie,

you download it, it's yours. But I think that

we're coming to that age where a lot of stores

are going to stop doing this. And Target is apparently

expected to follow suit in this, which for Best

Buy and Target to kind of drop off the map on

this, it's only a matter of time before the rest

of the brick -and -mortar stores drop these out

and remove them from their shelves as well. Honestly,

I can't remember the last time I went and bought

the CD. And it's been so long since I've done

that. I've bought digitally for the past, I don't

know, five, six years of everything that I've

ever wanted. And for the most part, I just stream

what I want. Like, I mean, I listen to Pandora

and that's pretty much it. I mean, I don't, I

have my old CDs that I've ripped to my computer

from the 90s and early 2000s that I bought. Other

than that, I haven't bought a CD in years. I

haven't even bought a Blu -ray or a DVD in years

because most of the time I wait for stuff to

hit streaming. And I don't have to take up the

physical space. I used to own 1 ,300 movies,

and I, over the past two years, have sold all

of them because I had an entire bookcase full

of these things, like TV series, Blu -rays, DVDs.

It was taking up way too much space, and for

how little I watched them, it made zero sense

for me to hold on to them. So I'm kind of in

agreement with how Best Buy is performing in

this, even though some people are shocked and

upset with Best Buy for doing this. They quoted

even some of those embedded tweets that we just

talked about. Some people felt betrayed that

they were getting rid of them. And this is what

happens when computers rule the world, a mess.

It's just stuff like that. I think that you kind

of have to evolve with the times or you get left

behind. And I think Best Buy is doing that with

renovating and kind of clearing out that and

filling that space with something that's actually

going to sell compared to stocking all this space

for. dying media format so it's it's a bit interesting

and I'm gonna cut this particular section out

there's this is about the end of that section

I'm gonna be moving on to where normally I would

place a commercial break however this being the

first test episode I'm not going to actually

have one and then I would come back with during

that break I was planning on having like a podcast

advertising. So in this instance, I'm going to

put one for my podcast, Altered Geek, and then

move on from there. So I'll be back in just a

second on the other side of this. Hello, geeks

and geekettes. I'm Steve Megatron, and if you're

looking for a podcast that covers a vast array

of geeky topics, then check out Altered Geek.

Altered Geek covers superheroes, Star Trek, pop

culture, comics, film, television, animation,

gaming, tech, and more. So check out Altered

Geek and get altered, get geeky with the Altered

Geeks every Friday on iTunes, Stitcher, Google

Play, SoundCloud, Blog Talk Radio, and the Geekcast

Radio Network. And we're back. So I hope you

guys have enjoyed for the most part this episode.

I am still obviously tweaking the format and

the structure of this podcast. I will have something

on the next one. about some of the stuff with

my children and growing up in the digital age,

especially for the fact that when my son, that's

five years old, gets on the tablet, he glosses

over in his eyes and just kind of stares at it.

So it's kind of a struggle with us because back

when we were kids, we didn't have the struggle

of having cell phones and all of these digital

devices in our face. giant computer that sat

in our computer desk and we didn't have all these

little personalized you know smart TV smartphone

tablets just everything and trying to raise a

balanced kid in today's age is not very easy

when It's very simple to put your son and your

kids in front of technology and let the technology

kind of entertain them. But when you're trying

to give them a well -rounded, balanced measure,

it's not easy, like I said. Especially when you're

trying to homeschool, we're very much into trying

to get the kids to do crafts. singing to learn

things. And that's how we got my, it's funny

because my two -year -old actually learned his

ABCs before my five -year -old because we sang

the song and my two -year -old can pick up a

tune better than my five -year -old. But my five

-year -old is very creative. So it's very interesting

in how to do that using old school media in that

regard. But it's also trying to figure it out,

and sometimes Googling works best to try and

find some ways of doing that. But just as a brief

thing, I've found that limiting time and definitely

watching what your children watch before they

do, basically pre -screening it, is definitely

something you want to do in today's modern era,

especially with YouTube and the fact that you

get these weird ads that pop up. You get sometimes

some questionable material that pops up. So my

wife and I have actually created playlists of

things on YouTube to kind of some things that

educate. And we give our kids maybe an hour's

worth of TV a week, which is abnormal. And for

somebody who's been as glued to media as I have

over the past 20 some odd years. It's difficult

for me to even unplug, and I don't want my kids

to have the same struggle I do. So it's definitely

a journey. So I hope that you guys enjoyed this

episode. I don't know if they'll go over 20,

25 minutes. I think that that's kind of the sweet

spot for this with doing a little bit of kind

of what you need to know in the news of tech.

And I do plan on having topical aspects to this

show a little bit more. planned out i've i realized

that this is the test bed this is episode zero

for me um so it's it's very much a a machine

that needs to be fine -tuned and i look forward

to all criticism and feedback and uh suggestions

but i i definitely want to do the aspect of of

having uh some brief segments in the fashion

of how i had it in this episode um but it's it's

it's not something I plan on dragging out just

for the sake of dragging it out. So until next

time, this is Steve Phillips signing off.